Khartoum University reinstates suspended students

The Chancellor of the University of Khartoum has issued a decision reinstating 11 students who were suspended following protest actions in May this year.

The University has reduced the penalty of final dismissal for two women students to dismissal for two school years. It has maintained the final dismissal of three students and a dismissal of a fourth student for two years.

In issuing the decision, Chancellor Ahmed Mohamed Suleiman is largely following the recommendations of an advisory committee that was formed to review the dismissals and suspensions. The Committee, that rounded-off its report last week, recommended to reduce the sanctions meted-out to some of the students to varying degrees. It based the recommendation on the evidence and facts provided by witnesses, as well as “the social situation and the excellent academic levels of some of the students”.

Six of the students were indefinitely dismissed from Khartoum University, and 11 others were suspended for two years in early May, after widespread protests against a rumoured decision by the administration to sell-off faculty buildings and move its facilities to the suburbs of Soba in southern Khartoum.

On 5 May, security agents stormed the office of lawyer Nabil Adeeb in Khartoum, and detained a number of students who wanted to hire him to challenge the dismissal. They were released in the end of June.